Saturday, November 12, 2011

Communication is strange. I can communicate perfectly with some people and if I were attempting do use the same communication techniques with other people and no one would understand me. And yet, communication is necessary for human beings. Even starlite can't write a character who doesn't participate in communication; and that's starshy. If he can't do something crazy, then, well. Ye-ah.

Hi Jack, by the way. Hi Lint.

Another strange communication thing. I can communicate with things that are nothing more than the figments of someone else's imagination. I can be friends and communicate with figments of my own imagination, but that tends to end up a little abnormal. Right, Flora, honey? She's smirking right now.

And then when communication fails, you get frustrated and angry and people have problems with each other. Oh communication. The frustrating barrier to interacting. Gossip is a form of communication. And I've been watching way too much of Sheldon Copper... I wonder what cats could say if they good talk. Because you see, Hobbes is meowing at the ceiling. Like... meowing at the ceiling. And there's nothing around the ceiling. Weird cat.

He'd probably be mad at me for talking about him. Like starshy. Hi starshy. CHOCOLATE.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Yes Sandy, please stop gloating. You offered what has proved to be a wise suggestion. I am honored to be your grasshopper.

I was writing for myself. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to write the next Percy Jackson series. I wanted to craft words into sentences and sentences into pictures all in the hopes that one day, some when, someone would come up to me as a fan of my work. It's selfish, but I still want it. I want to turn Gracie Martin into a household name and lately, I've spent so much time dreaming about it, I've spent little time actually working on it.

Hopefully, I'm back on track now. Gracie has started developing wildly. She's almost level with Keil in how much time I spend talking to her each day. Steven, Monica, Jared and Clementine have been developing themselves at a rate I haven't experienced before in non-mcs. I'm caught up in this story. I seriously dreamed the whole thing last night. Sure, it was a little more random than a true story would be and it focused a bit more on Gracie than my normal stories would... but who knew. Who knew she'd ever duct taped a teacher to a desk and gotten away with it? Who knew she had a secret rock collection that all had names.

And now she's going to kill me. I'm loving Gracie right now. Character development is... I don't know. Fun. And the whole Gracie Martin Saga is just this theory on how people handle personal failure and how humility can affect people. It's a giant character study and it's fun. I get to play with messed up characters. Monica and Evan are twisted. Everyone from Steven's class is, that's why it's fun. In the dream I mentioned, one of the scenes was Gracie, Monica and the others were all playing Mafia during one of their class periods. Eleven mentally troubled teenagers playing Mafia together? This story is so much fun!

For people who I haven't gone on for hours about this story, GM is a little bit of everything. The first book is like so many other fantasies that mix fantasy with the modern world. But... it ends dramatically, in a way most people wouldn't expect to come from a teen writer in a teen fantasy story. Hehehe. Insert the mad scientist laugh here. The second book is pure Heroic Quest, outlined nearly exactly along Daniel Schwaubauer's suggestions. The third book deals with no fantasy at all, and rather how people interact with and support each other. The fourth book tests the bonds the hero has made in the fantasy world and in the real world, dealing with how to effectively mess and live in two separate worlds; another Heroic Quest-ish story. And the fifth book... the fifth book is a test. It's a test in failure. It's a test in determination. It's a test in overcoming grief.

There's so many things I love about Gracie Martin. Sticky notes. Gracie. Steven. Books 1-5. Monica. Keys. The list could go on for awhile. But I'm aware it's still very much in the developmental process. I've never written a series before, and the problems of I've had with Ashley and Ashleigh spooked me about sequels. But the GM books aren't sequels to each other. They're integral books in the same plot and I'm jsut loving this. I will say, however, I will hate this story before I finish it. I always do. It's one of the things I write about.

So now I'm gonna go work on GM, instead of just ranting about it. Yay stories. Yay writing for stories. Boo writing for self. YAY GRACIE.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

It's November 8th. Since November 1st, I have read a total of four and a half books. Sure, one of the books shouldn't count as I wrote it and know some passages by heart, but if you count if, I've read a total of 1826 pages. 1402 of those words came from two different hardcover books; the rest from paperbacks. I don't have a word count for how much I've read in the passed few days. It's just more than normal. And I think it's because I'm taking a sabbatical from writing. And you know what I've discovered? I've really, really, really missed reading as much as I used to. Writing kind of encroached into that time and it's just... I haven't read a lot lately and I'm glad to be changing that for awhile.

"Speak Aloud, Scream Alone." (145 pages, paperback)Which I wrote. And no. It does not deserve an underline.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen (125 pages, paperback) by James Baldwin. I hate this book. This is the book that is making my project so difficult. This is the book that obfuscated on purpose because the writer wasn't smart enough to clearly portray his argument. Not to mention that Baldwin's argument is just as faulty as the faulty investigation he was complaining about. Siiiiiigh. I try and do a simple, easy report on a serial killer and I get one that's fraught with the racial controversy! I just can't get away from the race issue. It follows me. I'm serious. Racism stalks me.

The Son of Neptune (521 pages, hardcover) by Rick Riordan. Fun read. So much better than The Lost Hero. Jason Grace remains a drag. Percy Jackson remains one of the best teenage heroes ever written. Yay Percy. And the side characters weren't awful. Sure, it wasn't as great as his first five books, but it was seriously enjoyable.

Inheritance(880 pages, hardcover) by Christopher Paolini. WARNING: SPOILER alert. I'm going to rant. And if you're planning on reading the book and don't want the spoiler alert, skip to the next paragraph. The book sucked. It took me like... six hours to really read. On a kindle. There was one great scene. A few good scenes. And the rest was just fun to laugh at. The ending was just plan disappointing. You'd think that after he forces us to wait for years he'd just go ahead and give us his perfect little ending that he laid out way back in book one. You'd think he'd have the guts not to bring back the dragon race. But no. He has to tell us the ending. He doesn't show us the ending. He had to "fulfill" Angela's fortune telling with half-truth and a ridiculous reason. His characters were completely unrealistic turning the ending. He didn't have the decency just to suck it up and send Arya away. With Arya and Murtagh running around with Firnen and Thorn, it doesn't matter that Eragon left. There was no point to his actions, nor Arya's. The ending just plain and simply sucked. Enough that now I'm mad at the whole series. Paolini should use OYAN. Actually. I'm not sure I want his name associated with OYAN. It's too epic for that.

And the book I'm reading now is by Tim O'Brien... The Things They Carried. It's about Vietnam and it's epic. There's some heavy language, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who that bothers, but I'm enjoying it. It's... gritty. And thoughtful. And bizarre. And yeee-wow some people are messed up. The book is down right creepy in a terrifyingly epic way. I'm reading it because the English supervisor - yes. In a school over 1700 kids, the English supervisor knows who I am =P - believes I need to expand the number of contemporary and non-fiction books that I've read. Yes. Ms H. That's why I'm taking Contemporary Lit next semester. Ms H is great. Hysterical. She's epic.

Next on the immediate reading list: Mistborn (the first one) by Brandon Sanderson, No Safe Place by Kim Reid (it's for the same project as the Baldwin book is for), Snowcrash by somebody or other, and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (another Ms. H contemporary). That's the immediate list, I s'pose. There's so many other great books out there. I'm just excited for reading. And it's a good feeling. One I haven't felt in awhile. Yayz.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Fish fingers. I must admit, I don't like calling them fish fingers. Fish sticks are fish sticks and they shall forever remain fish sticks. Most people know will now know what this topic is about. Hopefully, otherwise, you need to watch more Doctor Who. Doctor Who is amazing at making things... for lack of a better word... cool.

Say fish fingers and custard to any new Who fan, and they grin. Bowties are now labeled cool. Those blue and red three-d glasses. Bananas. Celery. I can admit to wanting a 7 foot long scarf that's got garish colors. Doctor Who just makes things cool, and we're all, as humans, susceptible to that. It scares me a little.

It scares me because it's another form of propaganda. Sure, I don't think DW is a propaganda machine of the British, trying to convince us all that England is better... 'cause lets face it people, they are cooler. I admit to that, but why do I think Britain is cooler than the USA? They've got better accents, better actors, and better TV. Social media. It's a form of brainwashing and I can admit to that!

I think all learning is a form of brainwashing. All media, all newspapers... even in this blog. This tiny little blog that's got four follows, I'm trying to influence you. Granted, probably with little success because... well... it's just a problem. This is what makes me a skeptic. I take nothing at face value. To a limited degree, I accept what my teacher's tell me, but I accept it as a viewpoint, as their viewpoint. It's not mine. There is no such thing as fact. Just biased opinion and frustrating sway of the media. Skeptical. Yeah.

And so I'm skeptical when a whole race of fans - including myself - start referring to a simple little food item as something that is wasn't originally. Fish fingers and custard does sound so much better than fish sticks and custard. I'll give you that. So... I'm not against Doctor Who, in specific, in any way, shape or form. I still love the show. It's just made me realize how massively susceptible we are to brainwashing, influences, and propaganda.

Two thumbs up, Doctor Who. If you told us not to breath, I'm sure someone would listen. =P /end sarcasm.